Presently a large inventory of brackets or gutter clips is needed to accommodate the many different roof and gutter styles of different vehicle models on which lightbars are assembled. It is desirable to reduce the inventory of lightbar mounting parts and facilitate the marketing of the lightbars by equipping each lightbar with the same mounting. Various attempts to provide universal lightbar mounts which accommodate different styles and curvatures of vehicle roofs has led to complex mounting mechanisms which have not achieved substantial commercial success, such as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,114,789 and 7,517,120. The need, and the solutions proposed, for providing a mount for lightbars which may be used with different styles of vehicle roofs is also described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0230566. The design for typical clips or brackets is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,244,053.
Straps have also been proposed for holding down carriers, racks, and lightbars on vehicle roofs, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,596,860 and 4,995,538. Such strap designs as have been proposed are not adapted for use in mounting lightbars on vehicle roofs of different curvature and where the lightbars may themselves be of different length. It is also desirable that noise engendered by air passing through the mounting device be minimized so that the mounting does not interfere with the use and performance of the vehicle on which the lightbar is mounted.